Post Office employees have voted in favour of industrial action against plans to terminate the DB pension scheme, despite having a £100m surplus.

The ballot, organised by union Unite found that 64.3 per cent were in favour of strike action and 78 per cent supported industrial action just short of a

The union has said that under a DC scheme from April next year, Post Office workers will lose around 30 per cent of their retirement income and thousands of pounds a year, based on stock market fluctuations. This scheme, is however already running for other members of the Post Office’s workforce.

The proposed final salary scheme closure will affect around 3,500 employees at the same time the business looks to make up to 1,700 staff members redundant by the year end.

Unite officer for members in the Post Office, Brian Scott said: "This strong vote in favour of industrial action should send a clear message to the Post Office that it has got it wrong over its decision to close the pension scheme.

“The Post Office’s executive team and the board need to reflect on the closure of a scheme which is currently £100 million in surplus and the anger it is causing among a workforce which is also facing a large number of job losses.

“It is nothing short of pension ‘robbery’ and the anger has been compounded by a failing business plan underpinned by the continued franchising of Crown Post Offices and the outsourcing of vast swathes of the Post Office’s supply chain business.

"Workers will not be made to pay for the failures of senior leaders in the Post Office with their pensions. Nor can the government continue to bury its head in the sand in the belief that everything at the Post Office is OK when in fact it is a basket case," Scott added.

Earlier this year, The Post Office told its employees that the costs of keeping the DB pension scheme completely open is “simply unaffordable”.

Unite will now consider its next steps, following the ballot, and believes that there is a clear call for industrial action if the Post Office’s leadership does not reconsider its pension plans.

The Post Office has urged unite to continue talks and has stressed that 97 per cent of its 11,600 plus branches are not involved in the ballots call for industrial action.

The Post Office network and sales director Kevin Gilliland commented: “The business’s financial position is improving but we remain loss making. Based on the ad-vice of our actuary, the fund’s surplus, which is currently being used to help subsidise the cost of the DB Plan, will run out in 2017.

“Once this happens, the costs to the business of meeting existing commitments will signifi-cantly increase, and this is not sustainable. We therefore need to close the DB Plan to future accrual when the surplus runs out, because it is crucial that we safeguard the benefits that members have already built up."

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